How Kirklees has gone backwards on recycling

- Prime Minister Theresa May in Commons exchanges. She described the Red Cross view that the NHS was suffering from a humanitarian crisis as “irresponsible and overblown.” WHEN I worked for Kirklees Council and before austerity began to decimate services we had a small but effective Environment Unit, staffed by creative and dedicated officers, which researched and developed a range of initiatives, earning the council a deserved reputation for good environmental practice.

Since that unit was disbanded we have moved backwards and the currently low recycling rate is just one example.

It could be improved if all local authorities shared common practices instead of having a plethora of different systems.

For example, my daughter, living in the London borough of Haringey, has one bin for all recyclables, including all kinds of plastic containers and glass.

She also has separate food and garden waste collections.

Kirklees has taken two huge steps backwards with the ending of household glass collections and its bureaucratic vehicle registration scheme for waste disposal sites.

Is it too much to expect a comprehensive review of waste collection and disposal, looking at best practice elsewhere and leading to an improved recycling rate and a reduction of flytipping? THANK you ‘Hard Up and Fed Up’ for your straight-to-thepoint letter about how if Huddersfield A&E cannot cope now as a fully functioning A&E, how is Halifax, also under pressure, going to cope when Huddersfield patients descend on them?

This depends, of course, if the traffic problems can be surmounted.

Jeremy Hunt, answering questions from the superb Jason McCartney and Paula Sherriff, was chronically inept.

The bloke has not a clue about what is going on but he has the hide of a rhinoceros – like Steve Ollerton and co – and it will take some very hard-nosed whips besides Theresa May’s political force to get this overpaid, uncaring Secretary of State for Health back to the back benches